Post Syndicated from Eben Upton original https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/zero-grows-camera-connector/
When we launched Raspberry Pi Zero last November, it’s fair to say we were blindsided by the level of demand. We immediately sold every copy of MagPi issue 40 and every Zero in stock at our distributors; and every time a new batch of Zeros came through from the factory they’d sell out in minutes. To complicate matters, Zero then had to compete for factory space with Raspberry Pi 3, which was ramping for launch at the end of February.
Happily, Mike was able to take advantage of the resulting production hiatus to add the most frequently demanded “missing” feature to Zero: a camera connector. Through dumb luck, the same fine-pitch FPC connector that we use on the Compute Module Development Kit just fits onto the right hand side of the board, as you can see here.
Raspberry Pi Zero, now with added camera goodness
To connect the camera to the Zero, we offer a custom six-inch adapter cable. This converts from the fine-pitch connector format to the coarser pitch used by the camera board. Liz has a great picture of Mooncake, the official Raspberry Pi cat, attempting to eat the camera cable. She won’t let me use it in this post so that you aren’t distracted from the pictures of the new Zero itself. I’ve a feeling she’ll be tweeting it later today.
FPC adapter cable
To celebrate our having designed the perfect high altitude ballooning (HAB) controller, Dave Akerman will be launching a Zero, a camera and the new GPS+RTTY+LoRa radio board that he designed with Anthony Stirk, from a field in the Welsh Marches later today. You can follow along here and here, and in the meantime marvel at the Jony Ive-quality aesthetics of today’s payload.
Give me blue styrofoam and a place to stand…
You can buy Raspberry Pi Zero in Europe from our friends at The Pi Hut and Pimoroni, and in the US from Adafruit and in-store at your local branch of Micro Center. There are roughly 30,000 new Zeros out there today, and we’ll be making thousands more each day until demand is met.
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